1. Radionuclides in wastewater treatment plants: monitoring of Sicilian plants.
- Author
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Cosenza, Alida, Rizzo, Salvatore, Santamaria, Antonio Sansone, and Viviani, Gaspare
- Subjects
WASTEWATER treatment ,RADIOISOTOPES ,SCREENING in water purification ,SLUDGE conditioning ,WASTE management - Abstract
Three Sicilian wastewater treatment plants were monitored to assess the occurrence and the behaviour of radionuclides. Two sampling campaigns (screening and long-term) were carried out during which liquid and solid samples have been analysed. It was found that
131 I mostly occurred in the samples analysed during the screening campaign (43% of the analysed samples contained131 I). High131 I specific activity was found in the mixed liquor, recycled sludge and dehydrated sludge samples. This finding was mainly due to the tendency of131 I to be associated with solid particles. During the long-term sampling campaign an influence of the sludge retention time (SRT) on the131 I behaviour was found. Increasing the SRT and consequently decreasing the fraction of active organic biomass inside the system, the specific activity of131 I decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2015
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